Month: June 2016

So the last couple of days I have been attempting to watch the new Roots series on the History channel. Honestly I have found this all but impossible. I watch a bit and I have to turn away. I know the story, I know our history but this depiction brings the ugly past full circle. Because having lived all these years, I am now living this modern day racism. In the 60’s and 70’s I saw too many intelligent black males of my generation witness lynchings, watch police brutality in the streets, see the MLK, Jr. murder, live and televised. And yet black men continued to fight for this country in wars in foreign lands, some to die, others wounded they came home and still were treated as second-class citizens, to be inprisioned for crimes and sentenced to years far beyond what was justified and beyond the sentence a white man committing the same crime would receive. I have watched black women with PhD’s working as secretaries because of their color, degreed black men driving taxi cabs, and so much more. We endured, and we endure daily subtle indignations. And now we get to watch this small-minded man called Trump, the “would be President” applauded by far too Americans. We listen to the cadence of many who deny and lie about our country’s achievements under the leadership of President Obama because he is black. Yes racism is alive and well. Difficult, but I watched the original Roots as a young woman, but this time around there is something new in my spirit, something welling up inside of me, as I attempt to watch this new Kunta Kinte. Perhaps it is that steady beat, the continuum of the injustice; it is tearing at my very soul and I want to shout out, I want to scream “Let my people go!!”